Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

May 13, 2016, 08:25 IST
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Team MiD DAY

The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce

Capital home for AnjaliAnjali Tendulkar was spotted at the Greater Noida registrar’s office on Thursday. Our sources say she was there to register the deed for a 3,150 square feet flat in a Delhi construction major’s project in Noida.

Anjali Tendulkar registered her flat in Greater Noida

We are also told the infamously bureaucratic staff of the office were on their best behaviour, helping Anjali execute the deed without any hassles. And when they requested selfies, Mrs Tendulkar was only too happy to pose with them.

The purchase will also make the Rajya Sabha MP, who had famously refused to accept the government flat that comes with the nomination, neighbour to former India captain Kapil Dev. While the home is also near the international cricket stadium that the Afghanistan Cricket team calls its home, we are sure it will help Sachin hop over to the nearby Buddh International Circuit to do a few quick laps in any of the supercars from his garage.

Daddy’s girl

Pic/Shadab Khan

Sanjay Khan leads daughter Sussanne Khan at the launch of a coffee table book at a Worli five-star in Mumbai on Thursday.

High on fiveWhile Lower Parel-based The Bombay Canteen’s posts on Instagram are always droolworthy, the latest was too good to be true.

The Smoke & Mirrors cocktail

An image of an aluminium beaker brimming with smoke, supposed to be The World’s Oldest Molecular Cocktail, did the rounds of its Insta account. They’re calling it, Smoke & Mirrors.

The limited edition cocktail is available only till end of the week, and wait, priced at just paanch rupaiya. Sniffing a prank, we called the guys, who said “it’s a surprise for our guests” and no more. Before curiosity kills the diarist, a reservation has been made. We’ll keep you posted.

He’ll huff, and he’ll puffMumbai-Bangalore flights are sold out for today. We aren’t referring to garmiyon ki chhuttiyan. It’s spriritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s 60th birthday, and his followers are flying in to offer birthday bumps.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Satsangs have been planned at Art of Living centres across, including Mumbai, but the real shindig is at the Bangalore HQ. A spokesperson from AOL, said, “There is nothing special planned as such. Every day is a celebration for guruji.”

We are curious, will there be a giant cake holding 60 candles? Guruji, we are sure, will have them out in one poof! All those years of Sudarshan Kriya couldn’t have gone to waste.

Equal rights to breach a menuHow does a visually impaired diner order a masala aloo double decker? S/he asks a sighted companion if the masala aloo double decker is on the menu. The Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), a city based national support and advocacy centre that works to create an inclusive society, says, no longer.

The 3-in-1 accessible menu

A 3-in-1 accessible restaurant menu that’s part Braille-part audio, introduced at the Bombay Blue chain of restaurants in collaboration with XRCVC, is not only helping blind foodies go about pet puja with little bother, it’s also earned a little bit of fame with a mention in the Limca Book of Records 2016.

While the menu and prices appear in Braille font, the dish description can be accessed via an audio sticker beside each item, using an audio labeler pen and earplugs, says XRCVC’s dynamic director, Dr Sam Taraporevala. On a morning kickstarted with news, a gender advocacy activist entering a dargah — amid media frenzy — in controversy for keeping women out of the sanctum sanctorium, we think a quiet victory in equal rights like XRCVC’s makes for a better story.

Manto todaySaadat Hasan Manto was born yesterday in 1912. To commemorate the master of the short story, Westland Books launched a contest that nudged readers to imagine Manto in a globalised world. Would he have voted for Hillary or Trump?

Would he believe Jon Snow from Game of Thrones? One Twitter user said he would name Salman Khan as best actor; most thought he’d root for Hillary Clinton, and he wouldn’t give a damn about GOT.